Results 1 to 19 of 19
  1. #1

    Web Hosting Suggestions, Recommendations, Opinions

    Need a shared hosting account, less than 500MB storage, less than 25000MB bandwidth (easily). Needs:
    unlimited subdomains
    unlimited addon domains
    cPanel
    multiple email accounts
    ftp access
    php5
    mySQL5

    Wish List:
    Would love a secured server with no downtime; friendly, knowledgable, quality technical support; reasonable prices; and a low tolerance for extensive spamming on shared accounts (so my emails actually make it to my users). Wishful thinking: find one that actually still believes that the 'customer is #1" and should be treated that way .

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    271
    For what you are asking, it is very reasonable. For all the things you are asking most providers should be able to meet your needs. The resources wanted are low, along with many of the things you want given as a standard.

    The best thing to do is to go around the forum searching and looking in the others forum, along with trying to get information on any hosts you; either by asking in this thread or finding other review threads/ how they handled situations on here. For your support needs in a personal manner, you can usually find that the smaller hosts rather than the big names will be able to provide this.

    - Sam
    Last edited by aae9daqe312; 07-13-2009 at 12:52 AM.
    ClanDrive Hosting | The No Fuss Webhost
    Shared & Reseller * Seattle - West Coast * LiteSpeed * cPanel * Fantastico * R1Soft * &More *
    Dedicated * Seattle - West Coast * 1-Minute Monitoring *
    VPS * NY - East Coast * OpenVZ *

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Need a shared hosting account, less than 500MB storage, less than 25000MB bandwidth (easily).
    You may have a hard time finding such a small plan as most hosts have jumped on the mega-huge-plan or the unlimited plan bandwagon.

    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    unlimited subdomains
    Not too hard to find.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    unlimited addon domains
    This one may give you some trouble.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    cPanel
    Very common - I don't see any issues.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    multiple email accounts
    If multiple is 2~20 or so then you shouldn't have any issues but if you want "unlimited" you may have a hard time finding this.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    ftp access
    I don't know of any paid hosts that don't offer FTP.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    php5
    I don't know many hosts that haven't upgraded to PHP5.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    mySQL5
    Same as the PHP5 statement.

    Wish List:
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Would love a secured server with no downtime
    One would hope this is the goal of *any* web hosting provider however in a shared environment it's impossible to say that a server won't go down (such as if a user uploads a poorly coded script that starts consuming all CPU available) however 99.9% uptime is very attainable. I don't know that I'd go with a provider if I didn't feel there server wasn't secured myself...

    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    ; friendly, knowledgable, quality technical support;
    You will have better luck finding this with a smaller provider although personally I always found HostGator support to be friendly and knowledgeable even with their size.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    reasonable prices;
    It depends on what you consider "reasonable" if you want to post a budget then that will help quite a bit in giving any advice.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    and a low tolerance for extensive spamming on shared accounts (so my emails actually make it to my users).
    Ideally all providers would be this way but there's no real way of knowing without testing the waters imho.
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Wishful thinking: find one that actually still believes that the 'customer is #1" and should be treated that way .
    They are out there - but you're not going to find that kind of service at most of your big hosts in my experiences. Just make sure to make contact with any potential host you are interested in and test the waters - do try to speak with the support department and not just the sales department if you are able to however in some smaller companies the employees may do both functions

    Good luck!
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    It depends on what you consider "reasonable" if you want to post a budget then that will help quite a bit in giving any advice.
    Currently paying $10 a month for 1000MB of space and 25GB of bandwidth.

    If multiple is 2~20 or so then you shouldn't have any issues but if you want "unlimited" you may have a hard time finding this.
    20 or less is fine.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Currently paying $10 a month for 1000MB of space and 25GB of bandwidth.



    20 or less is fine.
    You shouldn't have a hard time find a provider that will fit your needs within a budget of $10/month. You may even be able to save some money if you are able to go yearly (many providers offer a discount on annual subscriptions due to lower transaction fees). Do make sure that if you go yearly that you trust the provider (maybe go month-to-month for a couple of months first, and make sure they offer pro-rated refunds).

    Do make sure to look for reviews of any provider that catches your eye and then as much research into the provider and their history as you can.

    Good luck!
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    271
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Currently paying $10 a month for 1000MB of space and 25GB of bandwidth.



    20 or less is fine.
    Your budget is very resonable for finding hosting, you'll probably be able to spend less on hosting since your needs are quite low in comparison to your budget.

    Take a look through the offers forum and the rest of WHT to make sure that you make a good choice.

    Good luck in finding a provider!
    ClanDrive Hosting | The No Fuss Webhost
    Shared & Reseller * Seattle - West Coast * LiteSpeed * cPanel * Fantastico * R1Soft * &More *
    Dedicated * Seattle - West Coast * 1-Minute Monitoring *
    VPS * NY - East Coast * OpenVZ *

  7. #7
    I have been doing some thinking this morning about hosting. Been checking HostGater out only because I could pay for a dedicated IP address and am hoping that would stop my emails to my forum users from getting placed in the spam boxes (shared hosting cause this).

    My thoughts are that the foundation has to be absolutely square and level BEFORE you build the house. So, my first place to view is the datacenter where each of these hosting companies are buying rack space. The next would be the infrastructure of communication lines going into and out of that data center. Am I right???

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    I have been doing some thinking this morning about hosting. Been checking HostGater out only because I could pay for a dedicated IP address and am hoping that would stop my emails to my forum users from getting placed in the spam boxes (shared hosting cause this).
    That is if they have their servers configured to send email out on your dedicated IP - most do not and I believe HostGator has separate mailservers if memory serves correctly.

    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    My thoughts are that the foundation has to be absolutely square and level BEFORE you build the house. So, my first place to view is the datacenter where each of these hosting companies are buying rack space. The next would be the infrastructure of communication lines going into and out of that data center. Am I right???
    You could go that detailed if you feel the need to invest that much time into the research of each and every company that piques your interest.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    You could go that detailed if you feel the need to invest that much time into the research of each and every company that piques your interest.
    I know, I am getting paranoid now. But, my forums are crucial to the very lives of people involved. To have them going up and down and all over the place has been really tough on them and me. At this point, overkill might not be a bad idea.

  10. #10
    BTW Thanks for replying to my questions. I really appreciate it!!

  11. #11
    Yea that is understandable, but your needs/budget is easily matched, or can be givin cheaper, because a host provides you with your needs for cheaper dont always mean crappier service, some host's just can, also to be safe since it is very inportant to you like a few people above said take a peek around, see some older posts etc, if you think you found a company research them or chat live if they offer it, get to know things etc, Good luck with things
    http://www.caperhosting.net - web/shells/ircd/shoutcast hosting!
    Live Chat sales/support on website
    WHMCS billing system and client login
    CaperHosting.net We care about everyone!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    I know, I am getting paranoid now. But, my forums are crucial to the very lives of people involved. To have them going up and down and all over the place has been really tough on them and me. At this point, overkill might not be a bad idea.
    No worries - it just depends on whether you want to invest that much of your own time into performing the research necessary to obtain that information.

    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    BTW Thanks for replying to my questions. I really appreciate it!!
    No problem.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    637
    If uptime is your primary concern then you should look for famed hosts like rochen and pair networks. They don't do unlimited addon domains, but how many domains do you actually need?

    Should I have to switch to a ~$10 provider, it would be with medialayer or precisioneffect. They use directadmin(took me only 10 minutes to be familiar with) and non unlimited addon domains, but its hard to dismiss their reputation over the years.

    Another alternative would be downtownhost, with quite impressive uptime reports and pretty much fit all your requirements. You can view them here under "Uptime Stats" http://www.downtownhost.com/helpdesk/index.php (hope they won't mind me linking that page)

  14. #14
    Talked to Host Gator. Their TOS about sending out emails may be a problem. I send out a monthly newsletter, with over a thousand forum members. I can torque it down, and put out 500 at a time, but their TOS does not seem to allow that.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Talked to Host Gator. Their TOS about sending out emails may be a problem. I send out a monthly newsletter, with over a thousand forum members. I can torque it down, and put out 500 at a time, but their TOS does not seem to allow that.
    As long as you don't go over the hourly limit you should be fine - at least that was the policy while I was with them.

    Some providers will even raise the mailing limits on a per-domain basis upon justification (such as newsletters) but then again some providers won't and others don't even know how.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    As long as you don't go over the hourly limit you should be fine - at least that was the policy while I was with them.
    Their mailing policy says that you cannot send out say 500 emails at once. Which is okay, I can send out a group at a time, with 256 being my current largest group. That is what I currently do to stay within my host's guidelines of no more than 1000 in an hour.

    The way I am reading it though, I would have to wait until the middle of the night to even do that, since I have over their limit of 900 members on the list:
    http://www.hostgator.com/mailpolicy.shtml

    I don't think I am reading it wrong. I hate to use phplist, because my forums are phpbb and the combination of the two, running together, caused a major security breach this year. So, stopped using phplist. If most hosting accounts are like this, I may have problems.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    271
    Quote Originally Posted by lanesharon View Post
    Their mailing policy says that you cannot send out say 500 emails at once. Which is okay, I can send out a group at a time, with 256 being my current largest group. That is what I currently do to stay within my host's guidelines of no more than 1000 in an hour.

    The way I am reading it though, I would have to wait until the middle of the night to even do that, since I have over their limit of 900 members on the list:
    http://www.hostgator.com/mailpolicy.shtml

    I don't think I am reading it wrong. I hate to use phplist, because my forums are phpbb and the combination of the two, running together, caused a major security breach this year. So, stopped using phplist. If most hosting accounts are like this, I may have problems.
    If you steer away from hosts which offer "unlimited" you will find more lax restrictions on things such as sending e-mails at mass. Since your diskspace/bandwidth requirements are very low you have a good budget to spend on your needs, rather than going for something which you will never use 10x over.
    ClanDrive Hosting | The No Fuss Webhost
    Shared & Reseller * Seattle - West Coast * LiteSpeed * cPanel * Fantastico * R1Soft * &More *
    Dedicated * Seattle - West Coast * 1-Minute Monitoring *
    VPS * NY - East Coast * OpenVZ *

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Quote Originally Posted by SamCD View Post
    If you steer away from hosts which offer "unlimited" you will find more lax restrictions on things such as sending e-mails at mass. Since your diskspace/bandwidth requirements are very low you have a good budget to spend on your needs, rather than going for something which you will never use 10x over.
    Really the limitation on emails per hour isn't a limitation in place due to unlimited/overselling but is in place due to spammers and faudsters that sign up and then try to send out as many emails on their 125k email list as they can before they get shut down.

    Putting a limit in place helps to curb this type of behavior and limits the damage it could do - most hosts that have limits in place such as these will raise the limits on a per-domain basis if you need bit but I would be scared to go with a host that had "unlimited" emails per hour because that's just asking for a crash and/or RBL listings. Even if the customers are all good - occasionally an account will get compromised due to their password being shared somewhere else, one of those FTP trojans, or something else - and then boom an account in good standing for months or years is suddenly sending spam unknowingly.

    I've always personally found having limits and knowing what they are is always better than having "no limits" because there are always limits - you just can't see them.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  19. #19
    Well, I looked, I shopped, I weighed the benefits of cheap, unlimited, everything but the kitchen sink, and regulated; and chose regulated. I know, I don't like that word either, but that is what it is.

    I chose MDD Hosting

    The Pros: MDD uses their plan levels, and prices, to limit the server load. The more databases and add-on domains you have, the more you pay.

    The Cons: MDD uses their plan levels, and prices, to limit the server load. The more databases and add-on domains you have, the more you pay.



    Yup, folks, it is a true dichotomy!

    I wanted more addons and db's, but I have to 'pay the piper for them'. I even tried to get Mike to 'bend the rules for me', to no avail. But, I also understand that this does give me an opportunity to be on a server that is not overloaded. At least, I am praying that this is how it works. So, I will get back to you in the future and give you a review.

    I have been on the web, in one way or another, since the 80's (DOS days). Hopefully I will be able to give you a well thought out and thorough review.

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 5
    Last Post: 04-24-2009, 05:39 PM
  2. Recommendations/suggestions?
    By Kaitlyn2004 in forum Dedicated Server
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 06-15-2008, 08:54 PM
  3. Need hosting suggestions/recommendations
    By Jatinder in forum Web Hosting
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 01-07-2008, 10:42 PM
  4. Boston area recommendations? Opinions...
    By Nicholas Plante in forum Colocation, Data Centers, IP Space and Networks
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 07-19-2004, 11:39 PM
  5. Any recommendations/opinions?
    By spoon805 in forum Web Hosting
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 08-19-2000, 04:34 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •